While many are actively engaged with FX’s docuseries, Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, actress and activist Daryl Hannah criticized the production in an op-ed for the New York Times.
Daryl slammed the Ryan Murphy Production for the misogynistic portrayal of her younger self … Hannah dated JFK Jr. on and off from 1988 to 1994.
From the desk of Daryl Hannah:
“It’s appalling to me that I even have to defend myself against a television show. These are not creative embellishments of personality. They are assertions about conduct — and they are false.”
Daryl was portrayed as “irritating, self-absorbed, whiny, and inappropriate.” She wrote that the show also depicted her as a cocaine-loving, selfish obstacle in the way of the series’ late lovers.
These creative choices, Daryl claimed, were “no accident.” The Splash actress understands that the character they created was a “narrative device” to drive tension in the series. As a result, the series fell into “textbook misogyny” by pitting two women against each other.
Daryl distanced herself from the series’ “untrue” depictions of her life, behavior, actions, and relationship with the Kennedy family. “I have never desecrated any family heirloom or intruded upon anyone’s private memorial.” She continued, “I have never planted any story in the press. I never compared Jacqueline Onassis’ death to a dog’s.”
Why Daryl decided to speak out:
She made it clear that her “silence should not be mistaken for agreement with lies.” In order for Daryl to continue doing the “good work” of her philanthropic efforts, she requires “an intact reputation.”
Daryl has respected the Kennedy family’s privacy and condemned the “self-serving sensationalists trading in gossip, innuendo, and speculation.”
“In a digital era, entertainment often becomes collective memory,” she wrote. “Real names are not fictional tools. They belong to real lives.”
A Kennedy entered the chat:
John F. Kennedy Jr.’s cousin says Daryl Hannah’s controversial portrayal in “Love Story” is completely fabricated.
Douglas Kennedy, who has not watched the FX series, told Page Six that the show’s take on Hannah is “unfortunate.”
“Daryl Hannah was great,” he says. “Whenever I saw her, she was very sweet and had [John’s] best interests at heart. I think that’s a misrepresentation.”
But Douglas, the 10th child of Robert F. Kennedy and his wife, Ethel, tells Page Six, “Everybody around Carolyn loved Carolyn.”
“It’s difficult to capture the intricacies of people’s lives in movies or television,” he continues. “If you know people, these types of things often fail in capturing the essence of who people were.”
